Quadruple grant success for CRESJ

Significant research grants awarded to CRESJ researchers by the Leverhulme Trust, Daphne Foundation, Realising Opportunities and British Academy

CRESJ researchers are celebrating significant grant success across a range of exciting new projects.

Daphne programme

The University of York is part of a consortium of eight universities which has secured €1M from the European Commission’s Daphne programme to prevent and combat violence against children, young people and women for a project to develop and evaluate ‘first response’ training programmes for university staff working with survivors of sexual violence. Young women, and students specifically, are particularly at risk of gendered and sexual violence and, in the UK and other European countries students are an under-served population in terms of support services.

This project will develop training for ‘first responders’ in universities, on how to recognise victims of sexual violence and support students after disclosure, ensuring that they are treated with respect, dignity, sensitivity to their specific needs, and have access to criminal justice avenues if they wish. It will also audit university care pathways to ensure that students are protected from repeat victimisation and secondary victimisation, especially in cases where the perpetrator is a fellow student.

The York component of the project is led by Dr Vanita Sundaram and comprises four strands, accounting for around £200,000 of funding:

Research: Collation of research and models of best practice in partner countries to support the development of ‘first responder’ training programmes and sexual violence policies and care pathways

Training: Collection and analysis of data on the training at the University of York and Lancaster University

Analysis: Contribute to the comparison of data between partner countries

Dissemination and Legacy: Contribute to the dissemination of project findings and, thereby, to the development of sustainable training models at the University of York and Lancaster University

You can follow progress and debate around the project via the Twitter hashtag #USVreact.

Realising Opportunities

Dr Sally Hancock is leading an independent evaluation of the Realising Opportunities Programme. Realising Opportunities (RO) is a widening participation programme which provides support for the ‘most able, least likely’ students (usually aged 16, 17 and 18) through interventions designed to raise aspirations and enable them to demonstrate their potential for success at a research intensive university (RIU). The Partnership began in 2009 with a three-year Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)-funded pilot involving 12 universities, becoming self-funding in 2012. There are now a total of 15 RIUs participating in the programme.

The project team includes Dr Paul Wakeling and full-time Research Associate, Alex Ewart, who brings advanced quantitative research skills to the role. The research team will summarise findings from various sources (student attitude surveys, ‘progress’ surveys with student cohorts as they enter or leave university, a teacher survey, interviews with RO staff at participating universities, and statistical analyses of databases) in order to provide an independent overview of whether the programme has achieved its stated aims. The evaluation will also make extensive use of secondary data from a number of sources including the National Pupil Database. The project is expected to conclude in July 2016.

Leverhulme Trust

Professor Ian Davies is working with an international collaborative team on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust exploring 'Youth Activism, engagement and the development of new civic learning spaces'.

explore the meanings of youth activism and engagement to young people, professionals/policy makers; patterns of participation across individuals and groups; and, how education may promote forms of civic activism and engagement congruent with democratic pluralism in a range of different socio-political contexts in comparative perspective, (Australia; Canada; Singapore; Hungary; Lebanon; UK;)

explore the changing experiences of youth activism and how these experiences influence education and youth policy and practice

British Academy

Dr Sarah Olive has been awarded a British Academy small grant for her project entitled "'Betwixt a benefit and an injury': Exploring Japan's intermediation between Shakespeare and Vietnamese education". The project will run from June 2016 to January 2017.

The project aims firstly to understand the intermediatory role that Japan has played in the study of Shakespeare in Vietnam. Students in Vietnam meet Shakespeare as part of Japanese language and culture, ‘de-centered’ from English. It aims to highlight how educational practices around Shakespeare in Vietnam are different from, similar too, influenced by (or resist the influence of) its neighbours. Sarah is currently looking to make contact with academics and students in Vietnam interested in education, literature and theatre - email sarah.olive@york.ac.uk